Recall attempt unfair; efforts to change recall rules just wrong
State Sen. Josh Newman, a Fullerton Democrat, cast a nervy vote last month when he backed a gas tax pushed through the Legislature by majority Democrats. He’s a freshman lawmaker from a swing district and won election last fall by fewer than 2,500 votes. He knew it wouldn’t be easy.
Almost instantly, Republicans pounced and launched a recall campaign that’s gathered nearly half the signatures needed for an election that could boot him from office. There’s a target on his back because his ouster would also unhinge the political math that gives Democrats the upper hand in Sacramento. The recall bid stretches far beyond his Orange County district.
Now it’s the Democrats who are playing rough. A pair of bills, SB96 and AB112, intend to rewrite decades-old recall rules in a way that’s clearly designed to save Newman and Democratic dominance. It’s an abuse of power that illustrates the arrogant side of California’s one-party political world.
Party leaders should heed the damage they’re doing. State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D- Los Angeles, should drop the contrived effort he’s pushing to protect a Democratic supermajority in the Senate.
The measures change the rules in the middle of the game. The bills drag out the recall process by lengthening deadlines and procedural steps. Recall petition signers would have 30 days to reconsider and cancel their signatures. Election officials would need to be verify each name, replacing the percentage sampling used to test the veracity of names on voter-submitted documents.
The fine-tuning gets worse. The new rules would take effect retroactively, giving all these advantages to Newman and throwing a wrench into the recall bid. The bills are bundled into budget riders that are fast tracked for quick action. The changes would affect only statewide officeholders, leaving anyone to wonder why the so-called benefits aren’t extended to local and county jurisdictions.
By creating paperwork delays, the recall calendar can be stretched. In this case, Gov. Jerry Brown could decide to fix the vote at the next regularly scheduled election, a date that is more likely to turn
out Democrats than a special date that would appeal to Republican partisans. It’s a deftly done piece of legerdemain.
Democrats offer only an ounce of credibility to explain their parliamentary subterfuge. Republican signature gatherers, they claim, are falsely promising that the recall would repeal the fuel taxes and vehicle registration fee that Newman supported to pay for a $52 billion infrastructure bill. That’s clearly not the case, and Newman is filing a complaint about the tactic with state officials. But nearly every ballot measure and candidate race draws complaints about misleading claims, and it’s a safe bet that his objections won’t go far.
The specifics of the changes and the ground-level politics are one level of this dispute. As a legislator, Newman hasn’t overstepped his job by accepting the unpleasant medicine of higher taxes to pay for needed and overdue fixes to California’s roads and bridges. That outcome has drawn broad support with GOP lawmakers grumbling about increased taxes.
Voters in his district or anywhere else in the state can vent their dislike or support of legislators who supported the infrastructure deal at the next election. Republicans don’t need to go the recall route to punish a foe and are cherry-picking a district where the tactic has a good chance of working.
But ripping up the rules is worse. Recalls, along with initiatives that enact laws and referendums to overturn them, are powers given directly to voters as a check on elected officialdom. The rules are solid enough with defined steps known to all. Watering down this ballot-box right, as Democrats are doing, shows the contempt that insiders have for the public. Embodying this cynicism into law would be a serious mistake.
As a matter of fair play and integrity in the election process, Gov. Brown should veto the bills.